


Special Delivery

by VileVenom



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M, but really it's a bush, er just one baby actually, inexplicable babies!, the stork is real in night vale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-06
Updated: 2013-12-06
Packaged: 2018-01-03 20:43:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1072857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VileVenom/pseuds/VileVenom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cecil sighed over the line again, but this time it was less exasperated, and more fond. “When two people love each other very much, and they show great devotion to one another, the stork bestows upon them a baby to love and care for, and raise.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Special Delivery

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have much to say about this.  
> I just wanted Carlos and a baby.

Carlos stared down at the bundle of blankets tucked into the corner of the front steps to his lab. It was moving, which gave him great trepidation in shifting the thing over enough so he could get into the lab. It had not been there last night when he’d closed up the lab, and there was nothing on Cecil’s show the night before, proclaiming that people should expect some sort of blanket wrapped creature on their front steps the next day. Perhaps there would be an announcement later that day during the news to say what exactly might be going on, but Carlos did not recall seeing blanket bundles on anyone else’s doorsteps when he’d been walking to work.

He jerked back when an odd gurgling noise emanated from the bundle, a hand swiftly moving to cover his chest, where his heart was beating rapidly. If he could just get into his lab, he’d be able to procure some equipment to figure out what it was, without endangerment to his person.

"I think it wants you to pick it up," one of the bushes under the front windows of the lab supplied helpfully, causing Carlos to roll his eyes.

"I’m sure it does. And then possibly eat my face, depending on what it is," Carlos grumped at his secret police officer, shooting the bush a glare.

"Okay, that only happened one time in the last year," the bush responded, sounding defensive, "the stork is usually good with figuring out species."

"…Stork?" Carlos echoed, quirking a brow at the bush, before turning his gaze back to the fussing blankets. A tiny fist finally made its way out of the fabric, waving through the air as the noises grew in volume. "There’s a baby in there?!"

"Duh," the bush scoffed, before falling silent as Carlos rushed forward to scoop the blankets up into his arms, rocking and bouncing the fussing child carefully until it fell back into silence. For once, he was thankful for the years he’d spent babysitting younger cousins while he still lived with his parents.

"Hush, baby," Carlos murmured, looking towards the bush for further instruction. However, when none came, Carlos figured that was an indication that he was on his own from then on out. He sighed and moved to unlock the lab door, awkwardly balancing the baby in one arm as he moved inside.

He dialed Cecil’s number once he had the baby settled in a pile of fire blankets near his desk, not wanting to set it down atop any surface higher, for fear of it falling down. He held the phone up to his ear, idly tickling the child’s ear with a corner of one of the blankets, eliciting a high pitching giggling from the babe.

"Carlos?" Cecil’s voice filtered through the ear piece of the phone, sounding surprised, but pleased.

"Cecil!" Carlos exclaimed, stilling his hand at the sound of his boyfriend’s voice, the baby grabbing at his fingers happily. "Cecil, I found a baby on the front door step of my lab this morning. Is that normal for Night Vale? Was there some sort of, I don’t know, strange baby phenomena last night that I was unaware of? The secret police officer in my bushes this morning said something about a stork?" he rushed out in what felt like a single breath, worrying at his lower lip as the baby played with his fingers.

"A baby?" Cecil’s voice sounded breathy and surprised, "Stork?" The tone of his voice did not give Carlos the warm fuzzies.

"Yes! Cecil! What do I do?!" True enough that he was well equipped to deal with children, but this was Night Vale. Who knew what sort of strangeness was going on, if there was an inexplicable baby on his front steps.

"Oh, Carlos!" Cecil’s voice suddenly went up at least three octaves, making Carlos cringe and pull the phone away from his ear for a moment. "The stork! Oh, we’ve been deemed worthy by the stork! Happy day!"

Carlos pulled the phone away from his ear to glare down at the digital display, before bringing it back up. “Cecil? Cecil. I need you to focus, please. Why was there a baby on my front step this morning?”

"We’ve been deemed worthy by the stork! Oh! Is it a boy or a girl, Carlos? Or some other cute, otherworldly entity? Not that it matters, of course, but it might make choosing a colour for the nursery easier," Cecil rambled on, the excitement in his voice almost palpable.

"Uh," Carlos hadn’t even thought to check on the sex of the child, tilting his head slightly as he shifted blankets to take a look. "It’s a girl. Sorry, she’s a girl," he said, sitting back after tucking the blankets back around the gurgling baby. "Wait, nursery? Cecil. We can’t keep her. We don’t even know where she came from."

"Carlos," Cecil’s voice was suddenly exasperated, a quiet sigh sounding over the line, "Carlos, my dear. I love you, but you really need to get your hearing checked. The stork. It deemed us worthy to be parents, and dropped our daughter off at your lab. Not a bad idea, either, given that both of us tend to leave the house in a sleepy stupor, and wouldn’t have noticed her until we’d gotten home. No, better to leave her there, so you’d see her and be able to react better. And the stork would never have left her at the station, of course! Management would be furious."

"Daughter?" Carlos echoed, too dumbfounded by that simple fact to give much thought to anything else Cecil had said. And when he really looked at the tiny baby girl sat, giggling, before him, he could see the resemblance. Dark tan skin, wisps of curly black hair on her head, and the most piercing violet eyes he’d ever seen on anyone, aside from his boyfriend.

"Yes, daughter. Goodness, Carlos, did you catch an ear bug on your way to work this morning?"

"No, sorry, I just," he trailed off, reaching out to brush a finger tip along the baby’s cheek, "Sorry. You said she’s ours?"

"Of course she’s ours! Wait, she didn’t try to eat you, did she? Because she might belong to one of your coworkers, if that’s the case," Cecil hummed, sounding disappointed.

"No, no. She’s quite friendly to me. She seems to like to play with my fingers," Carlos murmured, a half smile tugging at his lips. "But, how? Cecil, I don’t understand."

Cecil sighed over the line again, but this time it was less exasperated, and more fond. “When two people love each other very much, and they show great devotion to one another, the stork bestows upon them a baby to love and care for, and raise.”

Carlos blinked, frowning in mild confusion. “Seriously?”

"Yes. How else do you think you get a baby?"

Carlos snorted into the phone, rolling his eyes affectionately. “Never mind, Cecil,” he chuckled, scooping their daughter up into his arms and rocking her back and forth gently and she cooed up at him. Only in Night Vale. “I’m coming home,” he hummed into the phone, rising up to his feet, “I’m guessing you’ll want to meet her before your show.”

"Oh! Yes, please, Carlos!"

Carlos laughed quietly as he hung up the phone and headed back out of the lab, much to the confusion of his coworkers.

"I’m a father!" was his only explanation to them as he began to walk back home, a litany of ‘congratulations!’ following him as he went.


End file.
